External pressure will not stop Taiwan from engaging with the world, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday as she left for the United States, hitting a defiant note after China threatened retaliation if she met U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

China, which claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its territory, has repeatedly warned U.S. officials not to meet Ms Tsai, viewing it as support for the island’s desire to be seen as a separate country.

China staged war games around Taiwan last August when then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, and Taiwan’s armed forces have said they are keeping watch for any Chinese moves when Ms Tsai is abroad.

Ms Tsai is going to Guatemala and Belize, transiting through New York first and Los Angeles on the way back.

While not officially confirmed, she is expected to meet Mr McCarthy in California.

“We are calm and confident, will neither yield nor provoke. Taiwan will firmly walk on the road of freedom and democracy and go into the world,” she said at Taiwan’s main international airport at Taoyuan, in a veiled reference to China.

Speaking in Beijing shortly before Ms Tsai left, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said her “transits” of the United States were not just her waiting at the airport or hotel but for her to meet U.S. officials and lawmakers.

“If she has contact with U.S. House Speaker McCarthy, it will be another provocation that seriously violates the one-China principle, harms China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and destroys peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” she said.

The spokesperson added, “We firmly oppose this and will definitely take measures to resolutely fight back.”

Ms Tsai’s transits will come when U.S. relations with China are at what some analysts see as their worst level since Washington normalised ties with Beijing in 1979 and switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei.

Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue and a major bone of contention with Washington, which, like most countries, maintains only unofficial ties with Taipei.

However, the United States government is required by U.S. law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

The United States says that such transits by Taiwanese presidents are routine and that China should not use Ms Tsai’s trip to take aggressive moves against Taiwan.

The United States sees no reason for China to overreact to planned transits of the United States this week and next month by Taiwan’s president, senior U.S. officials said ahead of Ms Tsai’s departure.

(Reuters/NAN)